This, my friends, is the business of a tailor. Inside this tiny little room, sits a man behind a sewing machine, with posters that have pictures of women in different styles of dresses. At the front of the room, where you see me standing, is a makeshift desk. I am supposed to pick out the style dress I want, tell the tailor, he then draws a picture on a piece of paper to match what I have selected. Then Eddie tells him the style shirt he wants and he draws that on the paper. Now it's time for him to measure us. I won't go into details about that because "the old grey mare ain't what she used to be", thank you very much. The tailor told us that the styles we had chosen would take "one piece of fabric" for each piece of clothing. We now go to another store where there are pieces of fabric, all different designs, hanging on the walls. We were to pick out the fabrics we liked and then take them back to the tailor. To make the outfits that the two of us have chosen will take 10 pieces of fabric. Now for the most amazing part of this story - I am having two dresses, three skirts and Eddie is having three shirts made. The costs of these outfits in US dollars will be $88!!! Are you kidding me? This is better than shopping at SteinMart! That price includes the tailor's charge for making the clothes and the amount for the fabric. We will go back next Tuesday for fitting and will be able too pick the clothes up on Wednesday. This story will be continued.......
After we left the tailor, we wanted to bless our driver, so we asked Goodluck to pick a restaurant and we would buy their lunch. This would be quite the treat for both Goodluck and our driver, Joseph. I like the fact that most of the people in Mwanza has the name Joseph. It's easy to remember. When we walked into this restaurant, Goodluck pointed to a table and said "we will sit here". I walked toward the table and saw an entire colony of ants walking across from one end to the other. Not a good choice, can we find another table, please? So he directs us to another table. Not what we would consider clean, but at least I didn't see an ant. We sat down, but Eddie and I both said at the same time "I'll just have a soda, I'm not very hungry". Goodluck & Joseph ordered a fish plate. While we were waiting for their lunch, I asked Goodluck if they had a restroom. He had asked the waitress and she pointed to the outside. Nice....I knew this was going to be interesting. Goodluck walked with me and on the door there was a sign that said "$1000 Tsh". You're telling me we have to PAY to use the bathroom? He said go ahead, he would take care of it. The guard at the bathroom door, unlocked it and I walked in. It was a very narrow room, and immediately I noticed there is NO toilet in this room, just that hole in the floor again, only this time it's raised about 6 inches. The room was narrow, but not narrow enough that I could reach the side walls, and there was nowhere to hold on to as I tried to stand up from the "squat position". Not a pretty site. If there is one story that seems to be consistent in these blogs, it's the bathroom experience, I do realize that.
We left the restaurant and met up with Moses for church. Since last year, the church has moved to the property that we had purchased about three years ago. The church building is still under construction, but now has a congregation of approximately 150. The service started at 4:30 because there is no electricity there and the people must have time to travel home before dark. On Sundays, they rent a generator for the sound equipment and instruments. The people came from all around, not one vehicle parked at the church, yet the church was partially filled with approximately 50 people. All of them had walked from no telling where and no telling how far. Amazing! We are so spoiled aren't we? Would you think about walking 10 miles church? Or 5 miles to church? Or 1 mile to church? Before we walked in the church, there was a little girl outside that was absolutely amazed at us. She wanted so bad to get close to us, so I turned to reach out to her and she screamed and ran with the most horrified look her face. Moses said she was scared of us because she had never seen a white person before. We walked inside the church, walking on dirt floors, well actually it's clay. I don't know how they do it, but they pack this clay so hard that it's like walking on cement, They walls are canvas and the roof is covered with tin. Everyone was happy to see us. Many of the faces we remembered from last year. Eddie preached, of course. At home he teaches a Bible study and one of the studies was a 7 part series, taking 7 weeks to complete it. This afternoon, he started talking and going over the 7 points and my eyes got big and I took a deep breath. What in the world is he thinking? These people are expecting to start walking home in one hour. They're not prepared to be here for a week!!!! But to my surprise, he was able to get all these 7 points done in less than one hour and still had time for an altar call! The altar calls are my favorite part of the services. I love to see people that are hungry for the Lord, people that want to know Jesus and develop a relationship with Him! When we said the last Amen, all the people wanted to hug us and say Karibu (welcome)! As we got in the vehicle to take us back to our home, we watched the people start walking back to their homes. How do they do this? By the time we got back to the house, it was dark. We passed women, children, men - all walking up and down the dirt roads and highways.
This is another thing you would never see in America. When we see someone walking along at night, we think that they are homeless and probably won't make it without either being killed, raped, or kidnapped. I asked Goodluck was this not a concern to them? He said "no, never". It is their way of life and it is okay, no problems. Wow! Can you imagine your little boy or girl that is 7-8 years old walking alone on a dirt road? Or a young woman walking alone on a dirt road or highway after dark?????
This has been a most interesting day, as is all the days we spend here. Something new, something breath taking, something unusual, something wonderful! My daddy always said, "A day without learning is a day wasted", so you can be assured that our days in Tanzania are not wasted!!!!
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